Did the Silk Road(s) Extend from Dunhuang, Mount Wutai, and Chang’an to Kyoto, Japan? A Reassessment Based on Material Culture from the Temple Gate Tendai Tradition of Miidera

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

George A. Keyworth

Published:

2022

Beyond the marvelous cache of textiles, manuscripts, and other ritual paraphernalia from China, Korea, and Central Asia that testify to the cosmopolitan Keyworth eye-opening ceremony held in 752 for the large image of Mahvairocana Buddha in Great East Temple (Jap. Tdai ji ) that were preserved in the Shsin () in Nara (), Japan, does sufficient material culture from the Silk Road(s) exist in Japan to substantiate the claim that the easternmost terminus was either Nara or Kyoto ()? Copious, sometimes much later records document how, during the 9th century, Enchin (814-891, , Chish daishi ), among eight other famous pilgrims and envoys from Japan, visited and studied at the Green Dragon Temple (Chin. Qinglong si ) in Tang (618-907, ) Chang'an (, modern Xi'an ) and received from Chinese or Central Asian teachers Esoteric Buddhist (Chin. mijiao, Jap. mikky ) ritual manuals, certificates, statues, and other symbols of transmission. Enchin is the patriarch for the Jimon (Jap. Jimonha ) or Temple Gate Tendai tradition (Jap. Tendaish ) based at the Onj Temple (Jap. Onj ji ), a.k.a. Mii Temple (Jap. Miidera ). With the discovery of the cache of documents and art sealed around the beginning of the 11th century in Mogao Cave 17 (Chin. Mogao ku ), also-called the Library Cave (Chin. Cangjing dong ), near the city of Dunhuang (), in Eastern Central Asia (present-day Gansu () province), and other archaeological finds at sites such as Turfan, Kua, Khotan, and others in Eastern Central Asi…

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